New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score STATEN ISLAND, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | It's not often in soccer a team gets a second chance in the regular season but on September 11, the New Jersey City University women's soccer team earned a hard-fought 'take two' tie. In a rematch of a 6-0 loss on September 1 at the College of Staten Island, CSI outshot NJCU, 30-3, but the Knights tied the game in the 78^th minute and kept the Dolphins' top two scorers out of the net to force a 1-1 tie in double overtime at the CSI Soccer Complex.
 
NJCU, playing its first game since that September 1 encounter, evened its season record at 1-1-1, handing a Staten Island squad (4-0-1) that had entered the game unblemished in its first four games its first tie of the year. On a hot and humid day in which only 12 players dressed, NJCU battled through temperatures in the low 90s.
 
In a unique occurrence, the match proved to be the third consecutive game played at the same visiting site—Staten Island—to open the season, after NJCU also played there in a neutral contest on August 30.
 
Junior All-NJAC goalkeeper BRITTANY HOFFMAN (McMurray, PA/Peters Township) played the first half and made six saves. At halftime, she moved to center midfield for the first field action of her career after playing the opening 3,720 minutes of her career in net.
 
Sophomore transfer goalkeeper Cassie Lubonski (Edison, NJ/Edison) played the first 45 minutes on the field before finishing the final 65 minutes in net, stopping five shots without allowing a goal. CSI's Victoria Donegan made one save.
 
After CSI gained a 1-0 lead in the 34^th minute, NJCU stayed close for the next 44 minutes and got the equalizer at 77:53. Junior midfielder AMANDA FILIPPONE (Kenilworth, NJ/David Brearley) slipped a nice pass to rookie forward and former high school teammate JILLIAN PECINA (Kenilworth, NJ/David Brearley), who beat the CSI outside back down the wing and scored on a shot inside the near post. It was her first career goal while Filippone chalked up her first assist of the season.
 
CSI's lone goal was scored off a free kick by Danielle Alexandrini, her first of the year at the 33:59 juncture, off a feed from Melissa Gelardi.
 
But NJCU earned the tie by shutting down CSI's two major weapons. Demi-Jean Martorano and Samantha Wysokowski, who each netted a hat trick to account for all the scoring in the first meeting of the season between the schools, entered the contest with seven goals each in four games. The two Dolphin stars got looks—eight shots each—but the five combined shots on goal were all thwarted. Megan Burke and Gelardi each had four shots for CSI. Filippone had NJCU's other two shots in the game.
 
CSI held a 23-3 edge in shots at the end of regulation and owned a 7-0 margin in the two overtime periods. But none of the OT chances were on goal and Staten Island did not have a shot on frame after Lubonski made a pair of saves at 87:27 and 89:28 at the end of the second half.
 
"As a coaching staff, we are very proud of the girls today," noted first-year head coach Mike Vivino. "Their effort and intelligence was a huge step up from the last game and it's great for them to see that our training sessions are producing positive results on game days. Shutting down two very good goal scorers [Martorano and Wysokowski] was a challenge the defense took upon themselves today and they can be proud of themselves for doing exactly that. Our goal going forward is to keep this positive momentum and build off of it." 
 
NJCU's next contest is a non-conference tilt at SUNY Old Westbury on Saturday, September 14 at 12 p.m.